Thanks to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recently announced overhaul of nutrition labels, families will soon know how much sugar is added to packaged foods and drinks. That means they can make healthier choices.
The new labels are a big deal, but why?
If a product has natural and added sugars, there’s been no way to know how much of each it contains. For example, if a juice drink has natural sugars from oranges and also added sugar, current labels would lump it all together. You have no way of knowing how much sugar is added. This is vital information, because too much sugar is bad for our health.
The new label changes all of that. You’ll know how much sugar was added.
Sugar is getting a bad name — for good reason. Some cities, like Philadelphia and Boulder, are considering a tax on sugary drinks. Why? Sugar drives costly diseases — not just diabetes and obesity, but also tooth decay, the most common chronic disease of childhood.
Sugar fuels bacteria that cause cavities. This is especially a problem in young children. In Colorado, about 40 percent of kindergartners and 55 percent of third-graders have experienced tooth decay. The impacts of tooth decay can be serious.
The most dramatic effects play out daily at Children’s Hospital Colorado, where young kids go under general anesthesia to have severely decayed teeth treated. Children’s sees a few thousand such cases annually. Oftentimes, these kids’ baby teeth are so decayed from excessive sugar that they’re pulled. That’s a problem because children need their teeth to eat healthy foods and to form words.
The sugar that propels this public health problem is a powerful foe. It’s addictive. It’s backed by billions of dollars in marketing. And it hides in many popular products found at your local store. That’s why industry fought so hard against the new labels. Fortunately, they lost.
While some sugars are found naturally in whole fruits and vegetables, most of the sugar kids eat and drink in processed products is added. Added sugars make up about 15 percent of the calories in the standard American diet. Much of this added sugar is in drinks.
Most people already know soda is sugar-loaded, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Juices, “enhanced” waters, flavored milks, teas, sugary coffees and sports drinks are no better for us. They’re all sugary.
What can we do about it? The new nutrition facts label is a great start because it’ll provide helpful information for healthier, more informed choices. The state also just implemented new rules for licensed child-care centers that prohibit serving children sugar-sweetened beverages and make water and white milk the default drinks.
Other potential strategies include:
- Requiring restaurants offering kids’ menus to make water or white milk, not sugary drinks, the default options. This is what Davis, Calif., did recently. Parents can still order a sugary drink for their child.
- Further improving school nutrition policies. The Colorado Department of Education is now looking at its beverage policy for all students. Public input is needed.
- Sugary drinks are OK in moderation. But we’ve reached a point where they’ve become the default beverage, and it’s hurting our health — and our children’s health — in painful and costly ways.
By working to curb consumption of sugary drinks and create healthier environments for our kids, we can truly make Colorado the healthiest state in the nation.
Barbara Springer is executive director of Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation. Jake Williams is executive director of Healthier Colorado.
